Yesterday, JUDAS PRIEST announced that guitarist Glenn Tipton will not be on most of their spring tour because Parkinson’s disease makes it difficult for him to perform. Tipton’s place onstage will be taken by Andy Sneap, who co-produced the band’s upcoming Firepower album and has a lengthy discography, both as a producer and a musician.
In 2001, the studio expanded to a 15-acre residential farm. Sneap would go on to produce albums by MEGADETH (United Abominations), ACCEPT (Blood of the Nations, Stalingrad, Blind Rage) and TESTAMENT (Dark Roots of Earth).
Sneap joined a reunited HELL in 2008, more than 20 years after the death of guitarist Dave Haliday, who taught Sneap to play guitar when they were growing up together.
“Unfortunately, he never got to see where [playing guitar] took me in life and how it influenced me,” Sneap said. “But when he died, he left me all the rights to all his songs – and all his equipment. He left me everything, pretty much, in his will. I don’t know why he had faith in me, to be honest. He must’ve seen something in me, I guess.” Sneap has since recorded two albums with HELL: 2011’s Human Remains and Curse and Chapter two years later.